Saturday afternoon Space Trek at the UWM Planetarium

UW-Milwaukee’s Manfred Olson Planetarium hosted a cross-campus scavenger hunt finishing up with a show hosted by director Jean Creighton inside the campus planetarium.  Guests started the scavenger hunt inside the Union, went through Bolton, Lubar and Lapham halls, ending in the Physics building where the planetarium is located.  Guests of all ages were encouraged to wear space-themed costumes for the event on Saturday afternoon.

The scavenger hunt challenged groups to compete against each other in a Jeopardy-themed space quiz, paper airplane making and flying contest, along with a few exercises geared towards children.

The only costumes at the event were worn by married couple, Frank and Karen Beres.  Frank dressed as captain, Karen as engineer of a spaceship.

“I think it’s great that UWM puts these events on for the general public,” said Karen Beres, who graduated from UWM and now works for the Lubar School of Business.  “Most people probably don’t know about what goes on on campus.”

Walking into Lubar for the “meteor shower” activity, the sound of children’s laughter filled the air.  Not wanting to move on to the next activity, Jeremy Ampe’s two children, Darla, 5, Louis, 2, were resisting their father’s attempts to herd them towards the exit.  Darla was wearing a shirt that said, “Occupy Mars,” while her brother wore a NASA shirt that read, “I need my space.”  The Ampe’s uncle works for SpaceX, which is the only private company to launch a spaceship into low-orbit and have it return safely.

Last summer, the Ampe family went to SpaceX headquarters in Los Angeles to visit with their family member.  According to the father, the children were most interested in the free ice cream in the cafeteria than any of the spaceships and rockets on display.

“Kids have varying degrees of interest in astronomy and space,” said Jeremy Ampe.  “I try not to throw too much at them all at once.  I slowly introduce pieces of space knowledge on them.”

At the end of the scavenger hunt, guests gathered for a quick show in the planetarium.  Creighton guided the audience through a view of the night sky through the eyes of a person from a light-polluted city, compared to how a person in a rural setting would see it.

Creighton, who has been the director of the planetarium since 2007, was recently selected by NASA to be an Airborne Astronomy Ambassador on SOFIA.  SOFIA, the decided acronym for Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, is the largest moving astronomical observatory in the world.

Although the children in the audience were audibly disappointed that Creighton was not an astronaut and had not technically been to outer space, they were impressed with the show.  Not only did the planetarium projector show the images of the stars in the night sky, it also played animations of astronomical events.  Guests were treated to videos showcasing galaxy collisions, event horizons and artist rendered journeys through black holes.

The Manfred Olson Planetarium hosts events for the public nearly every Friday night, along with topical special presentations scattered through the year.